‘It’s Scary:’ Manteca Home Ransacked, Leaving Family Shaken

MANTECA -- A couple says they feel violated after someone broke into their Manteca home.

"It's scary especially because I have a daughter and it's just scary to know that somebody was in here," said Vanessa Gonzalez Flores.

Flores and her fiance, Diego Salgado, say they now feel unsafe in their own home after someone broke into the house on the Cottage Avenue near Pine Street Wednesday in broad daylight.

Salgado says he was coming home from the gym when he noticed the side door to his garage was open. Someone had kicked in a back door and ransacked the home.

"The drawers were open to the room, my room right here, and they were all open like they were searching for stuff," said. "Some of my jewelry is missing, my watches are missing."

Salgado said whoever broke in took his most prized possessions, like chains he'd gotten as a gift from his fiancee and her daughter on Father's Day and other sentimental items.

"A ring she had gave me was also stolen. It was a diamond ring, which I don't know what the cost of it was but it is valuable to me because it did come from her and our daughter. Stuff like that you can't really replace," Salgado told FOX40.

That's not all the crook got away with.

"The door was broken in too, it was broken down," said. "The whole frame to the door was all messed up and there was clothes everywhere."

The thief also stole more than $3,000 from Flores' parents’ room. It was money the family had been saving to bring her grandmother to America from Mexico.

"We want her over here with us and that's just money we're saving for her lawyer," Flores said.

The couple says they plan to add more security cameras around their home and will be more aware of their surroundings from now on but say they're still worried.

"They pretty much know what we have and it scares me to think that they might come back to try to get something else," said.

The couple says they hope Manteca police can increase patrols in their neighborhood to prevent this from happening again.